Evergreen Cemetery Is Where Paris Keeps Its Stone Stories

Evergreen Cemetery began because the old cemetery near the center of Paris was running out of room. In 1866, local leaders chartered the Evergreen Cemetery Association and bought sixteen acres from George Wright.

The burial credited earliest there is Lucy Pope Maxey, Samuel Bell Maxey's mother. The grounds also hold early civic names from Paris, including incorporator Willet C. Babcock. His "Jesus in Cowboy Boots" monument has become a signature marker for the cemetery.

Look closely and the stones turn into a local picture book. There are angels, flowers, vines, cotton bales, broken trees, anchors and chains, sheep, a life-size buffalo, and even a stone version of the Paris Morning News front page.

That is a lot of Lamar County memory in one place. Evergreen is not just a burial ground on the edge of town. It is a quiet map of what people here loved, feared, worked around, and wanted remembered. The cemetery rewards a slow walk and a careful eye. The details make Paris feel close, not far away.